Louise and the Pins used to be vintage. Vintage, in wine-makers terms, is picking the grapes from one specific year and making wine from it. Quite specific – if you apply that to music – and in recent times Louise and her Pins have been blurring their references and bringing their very lovely Ossie Clark charm blinking into 2011.
Described as ‘the Andrew Sisters being backed up by Johnny Cash’s rhythm section’, the Pins have married a doo wop burlesque look [Sara and Beth used to be Ritzy Skits, a risqué dance duo] and a close bond with the nu-folk set.
Indeed the girls [Louise Hull, Beth Gorman and Sara Templeman] toured with Laura Marling last year and count her as a close friend. Other back-up plaudits, either as soloists or in a group include Mumford and Sons, Regina Spektor, Martha Wainwright and Alessi’s Ark.
Sitting on a sofa in Dalston on one of the first hot days of spring, Louise’s skin is pale and her lips are red. Despite the Cabaret look, as she says, they have a new direction.
“Our first EP was a very good starting point for us because it was very rockabilly, very 50s – we recorded it all on analogue. It was so authentic – and I loved it but the stuff that I’ve written since then is still very much 50s, but I’d say it’s a little more natural. Not so referenced and not so doo-woppy.
“I love those old-school sensibilities, the way everything was recorded – I don’t listen to anything after the 1970s – so it’s the music I’ll always love. But you’ve got to keep it a little bit modern or it becomes a pastiche.”
Her sound also veers into folk, as the support slots have shown, and they are all full of love for Laura Marling – “a joy” says Beth. Louise is big on Johnny Flynn, “He’s gorgeous…a gorgeous person. He needs to do better – I just feel that he should be up there with the rest of them – Laura, Marcus [Mumford] exposure-wise.”
Louise has a lot of love for Clarks, more in their affiliation with 50s greasers: “Roy Orbison always looked amazing in themI thought – so slick. Men don’t dress up like that anymore which is a crying shame.”
Back in the day Louise remembers them too: “I remember Clarks where my first shoe. I had a white pair, a black pair and a patent pair, with the keys in the bottom. It felt so cool. And you used to get the key, the stickers and the booklet, it’s such a strong memory. Everyone at school wore Clarks, and if you didn’t….you weren’t cool!”
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